Regenerative Neurology and Regenerative Cardiology: Shared Hurdles and Achievements

Abstract

From the first success in cultivation of cells in vitro, it became clear that developing cell and/or tissue specific cultures would open a myriad of new opportunities for medical research. Expertise in various in vitro models has been developing over decades, so nowadays we benefit from highly specific in vitro systems imitating every organ of the human body. Moreover, obtaining sufficient number of standardized cells allows for cell transplantation approach with the goal of improving the regeneration of injured/disease affected tissue. However, different cell types bring different needs and place various types of hurdles on the path of regenerative neurology and regenerative cardiology. In this review, written by European experts gathered in Cost European action dedicated to neurology and cardiology-Bioneca, we present the experience acquired by working on two rather different organs: the brain and the heart. When taken into account that diseases of these two organs, mostly ischemic in their nature (stroke and heart infarction), bring by far the largest burden of the medical systems around Europe, it is not surprising that in vitro models of nervous and heart muscle tissue were in the focus of biomedical research in the last decades. In this review we describe and discuss hurdles which still impair further progress of regenerative neurology and cardiology and we detect those ones which are common to both fields and some, which are field-specific. With the goal to elucidate strategies which might be shared between regenerative neurology and cardiology we discuss methodological solutions which can help each of the fields to accelerate their development.

Human Oral Mucosa Stem Cells Increase Survival of Neurons Affected by In Vitro Anoxia and Improve Recovery of Mice Affected by Stroke Through Time-limited Secretion of miR-514A-3p

“…2009;Bohl et al 2016;Parmar and al. 2019;Mitrečić et al 2020Mitrečić et al , 2022Rascón-Ramírez et al 2021;Ejma et al 2022).…”

N-acylethanolamide metabolizing enzymes are upregulated in human neural progenitor-derived neurons exposed to sub-lethal oxidative stress

“…These data provide relevant information about both cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid proteins in ReN cells. Several diseases are beginning trials for or is already utilizing stem cells transplantation strategies as a therapy including retinal degeneration, ischemic stroke and myocardial infarction ( Cehajic-Kapetanovic et al, 2022 ; Mitreèiæ et al, 2022 ; Zhao et al, 2022 ). Since the endocannabinoid system is known to be involved in early cellular and tissue development and cell fate, better understanding the role of eCB proteins, such as CB1, CB2, FAAH, and others, may be important in establishing better cell transplant outcomes.…”

Use of Brain-Derived Stem/Progenitor Cells and Derived Extracellular Vesicles to Repair Damaged Neural Tissues: Lessons Learned from Connective Tissue Repair Regarding Variables Limiting Progress and Approaches to Overcome Limitations

“…The latter may relate to the in vivo environments being very different, including the involvement of a disease process involving chronic inflammation and tissue degradation fragments, and thus neither cell source may function properly in the face of a chronic inflammatory process. Interestingly, parallels between regeneration of neuro tissues and cardiovascular regeneration have also been raised [ 52 ], and inflammation may again play a role in the two situations. As Mitrecic et al [ 52 ] discuss in detail, use of stem cells for tissue repair may be effective when used in acute situations such as ischemic events such as those involving the heart or the brain.…”

“…Interestingly, parallels between regeneration of neuro tissues and cardiovascular regeneration have also been raised [ 52 ], and inflammation may again play a role in the two situations. As Mitrecic et al [ 52 ] discuss in detail, use of stem cells for tissue repair may be effective when used in acute situations such as ischemic events such as those involving the heart or the brain. However, the heart muscle is less complex than the brain centres affected by neurogenerative conditions, so the repair of the heart may be more analogous to other connective tissues than the brain.…”

“…While NSC appear to have some distinctive antigens, how they relate to specific functions in the brain is not well defined. In addition, as discussed by Mitrecic et al [ 52 ], both cardiomyocytes and neural cells can be derived from MSC by cell-specific differentiation protocols, and thus can share their cell of origin. Thus, sharing experiences regarding attempts to repair/regenerate tissues with different cells with stem-like properties may eliminate some redundancy in the research effort going forward and help to focus some of the research effort on commonalities and then tissue-specific aspects of the repair.…”